[D&D 2e] Diadem of Destruction

One time, one time!, my friends and I chose a different tavern, and a guy ends up dead.

(Yes I have friends. Ryfon is an elf ranger, Braden is a mage in training…with some great sneaky skills, and Delenn is a Knight!)

A rushed, nondescript gentleman entered the bar we were in, handed Ryfon a hefty bag (worried people were after him), and was cut down by Zhentarim. We escaped before the Flaming Fist started asking too many questions.

This guy had money, a couple rings, a few maps, and a journal in the bag. Whatever my friends did next, I wasn’t paying attention because I am a priest of Oghma, and knowledge is my passion.

The journal indicated the nondescript gentleman was named Remo. He was searching for 3 keys that would help deactivate a magical artifact called the Diadem of Destruction. He had a friend named Marwin helping him out.

The first key was the Key of Fire. This was supposedly located in an unnamed crypt in the high moor. Marwin went to scout it out and never returned. Remo went to check on him and found Marwin turned to stone. From there on out, Remo’s time was divided between searching for information about the keys and finding a way to save Marwin.

I went to an exotic goods trader named Trielle at a shop called the Melting Moon. Trielle identified one of the rings as a Ring of Depetrification. She had acquired it on Remo’s behalf at great cost. The other ring was a Ring of Invisibility with one remaining charge.

I also sought advice at the shrine of Oghma. A more senior priest, Lyrin, told me he had never heard of the Diadem of Destruction, but he would look it up for me. He was going to reference a librarian in Candlekeep by the name of Siliven. Now, Siliven also happens to be a close personal friend of mine, but I let Lyrin contact him for me.

Maps. Remo had maps in the bag. His journal also had maps. The closest marked location was the crypt in the high moor. We decided we had scrounged about as much information as we could until we heard from Candlekeep. With that in mind, we decided to foray out to the moor.

When we left the road and entered the moor proper, we were attacked by werewolves! It wasn’t night time or a full moon, but these wolves that walked on two hind legs talked to our elf ranger. They demanded one of our mounts to eat. We wouldn’t let them, and the creatures attacked. When they died, they reverted to human form.

There is so much mystery! So much information that was dropped into our hands, but much more information that is currently unclear to us. We hope to find some answers in the crypt, and we hope to revert Marwin from his petrified state. We do have to beware. Remo warned of “too many guardians.” But he also later wrote of “so many statues.” That makes me think he found a way past the guardians and further into the crypt.

The one problem we seem to have right now is that there are “so many statues” and we don’t know what Marwin looks like.